North London video game developer, Shedworks, have developed a specially commissioned film for our exhibition Disappear Here: On perspective and other kinds of space, in collaboration with Sam Jacob Studio. We spoke to Greg Kythreotis, co-founder of Shedworks, to find out more about how the video came about and the processes behind it.
— RIBA

RIBA interviews Greg Kythreotis, co-founder of video game studio Shedworks; talking about his involvement in the current Disappear Here: On perspective and other kinds of space exhibition at the RIBA Architecture Gallery in London, the collaboration with Sam Jacob Studio, and potential overlaps... View full entry

The London-based architectural practice ecoLogicStudio, which specializes in bio-digital design, has developed a large-scale installation which stores and filters CO2 to help fight global climate change. Their 'urban curtain'—dubbed Photo.Synth.Etica—was unveiled this week in Dublin during... View full entry

He imagines a sort of experimental community spread over about a hundred square miles, where houses, schools, commercial districts and production studios will be built. The centerpiece of this giant project will be the blockchain, a new kind of database that was introduced by Bitcoin.
— The New York Times

Jeffrey Berns, who owns the cryptocurrency company Blockchains L.L.C., has bought 68,000 acres of land in Nevada that he hopes to transform into a community based around blockchain technology. His utopian vision, which would be the first 'smart city' based on the technology, involves the creation... View full entry

After conducting a yearlong search for a second home, Amazon has switched gears and is now finalizing plans to have a total of 50,000 employees in two locations, according to people familiar with the decision-making process.

The company is nearing a deal to move to the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens [...]. Amazon is also close to a deal to move to the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, one of the people said.
— The New York Times

It looks like Jeff Bezos may have finally found that second home for his online empire—or make that second and third. After narrowing down the list of cities that could be potential new hosts of Amazon's HQ2 in January, the company has been tight-lipped about its final decision. Until yesterday... View full entry

It might sound like a plot cooked up by a cartoon villain, but a city in southwestern China is aiming to launch into space an artificial moon that could replace streetlights by bathing the ground in a “dusk-like glow.”

[...] the satellite’s mirror-like exterior would reflect sunlight down to Earth, creating a glow about eight times brighter than the moon. The artificial moon, which he said would orbit about 500 kilometers above Earth, could save $174 million in electricity from streetlights.
— NBC News

The capital of China's Sichuan province, Chengdu, could have its own illumination satellite 'moon' up in the skies by 2020, according to the People's Daily. Light pollution, and its documented health effects on humans and nocturnal wildlife, doesn't seem to be much of a concern to the officials... View full entry

Students at the University of Cape Town have developed a bio-brick that mixes sand, bacteria and human urine. Unsurprisingly, it is the world's first building material to be made from the liquid waste high in nitrogen and phosphorous. The brick is created through a process called microbial... View full entry

A privacy expert tasked with protecting personal data within a Google-backed smart city project has resigned as her pro-privacy guidelines would largely be ignored by participants.

“I imagined us creating a Smart City of Privacy, as opposed to a Smart City of Surveillance,” Ann Cavoukian, the former privacy commissioner of Ontario, wrote in a resignation letter to Google sister company Sidewalk Labs.
— Planet Free Will

Five years ago we reported on a device invented by a group of students at MIT. This device, originally called "Wristify", was a small bracelet designed to heat or cool the wearer to achieve customized comfort, regardless of the surrounding environment. Today, after a few years of R&D, and with... View full entry

Out of the 1,171 architectural designs that Frank Lloyd Wright created in his lifetime, around 660 of them remained unbuilt. Using advanced visualization techniques, architect David Romero brings Wright's unbuilt designs one step closer to reality in a series of striking, computer-generated... View full entry

Polish based design studio Superhelix creates a green roof masterpiece that not only highlights the home's ecological design, but showcases what happens to buildings when they change over time. Located in Krakow, Poland the 189 square meter home's slanted roof was not built for aesthetics, but... View full entry

Los Angeles based architect Dan Brunn assembles a team of innovative energy efficient manufacturers to create a vision for contemporary net zero housing. The Bridge House LA, whose construction is soon to be completed in January 2019, is a project teeming with building systems manufactured product... View full entry

In Tonantzintla the smart cities proposal became a lightning rod for those concerned about a development that seemed to favour outsiders rather than residents...“They are ashamed of their roots,” [local resident Mercedes] Tecuapetla Quechol says. “They saw something they liked in the United States or in Europe, so they want to put it here.”
— The Guardian

The Mexican town of Santa Maria Tonantzintla is caught in the all-too-familiar situation of preserving its centuries-old customs as newer smart-city technologies are being introduced. While city officials and planners argued that implementing new technology intends to benefit the community... View full entry

MIT's Mediated Matter Group has developed a construction robot that winds fiberglass filament into large structures. The research studio, led by Neri Oxman, has dubbed the little machines, Fiberbots, and hopes they can one-day be used to build complicated, large-scale structures. Credit: The... View full entry

On this week's episode of Archinect Sessions Paul chats with Keely Colcleugh. Keely has spent the last 18 years aggressively exploring the boundaries of architecture. After getting her B.Arch at McGill she worked at the prestigious offices of OMA and AMO, Bruce Mau Design, Skidmore Owings &amp... View full entry

What makes Dr. Oxman, the scientist, so unusual, said Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of architecture and design at MoMA, is her aesthetic sense. “She’s not afraid of formal elegance,” Ms. Antonelli said. “The reason why she is a gift to the field of architecture and design is that her science works, her aesthetics work, and her theory works.
— The New York Times

Tenured professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, Dr. Neri Oxman's larger than life approach to architecture and design has continuously turned heads. Her impact in the world of architecture has led her to various breakthroughs in understanding the relationship and... View full entry